The present invention relates to apparatus for manipulating strips, webs, tapes or like elongated flexible commodities, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for convoluting strips of photosensitive material or the like. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus wherein the strip is convoluted onto the core of a reel which rests on and receives torque from a driven roller or an analogous rotary element.
German offenlegungsschrift No. 25 25 747 discloses an apparatus wherein the flanges of a horizontal takeup reel rest by gravity on and are thus driven by a horizontal roller which receives torque from a prime mover. The reel is connectable with pivot arms which project laterally therefrom and can be suspended on a horizontal rod extending in parallelism with the reel. The reel is then free to rest on the driven roller. A drawback of such apparatus is that, when the convoluting operation is completed, the reel continues to rotate in response to rotation of the roller whereby the trailing end of the convoluted strip repeatedly strikes against the frame of the apparatus, against the driven roller and/or against other neighboring parts with the result that its emulsion-carrying side is scratched and/or otherwise damaged. The problem is aggravated if the apparatus comprises several coaxial reels which are placed one next to the other so as to receive torque from a common driven roller. In such apparatus, the drive for the roller cannot or should not be arrested when the winding of one of several strips is completed because this would interrupt the winding of the remaining strip or strips. Thus, if the apparatus is used to simultaneously convolute a very short and a very long strip on the cores of the two coaxial reels, the trailing end of the shorter strip will strike against the neighboring parts of the apparatus during the entire interval which elapses between completed winding of the shorter strip and completion of winding of the longer strip. Moreover, the suspension of reels on and detachment of reels from the aforementioned rod take up relatively long intervals of time.